Woolfwinch or Stress Free Drum Winch

[Canta]

Hi new to this forum,read all posts on these winches, contacted both Manufactures and come to the conclusion that the only real diffrence in these winches is that the Woolfwinch claimes to drop & retrieve twice as fast as the Stress Free. Is this a good point or bad, and would appricate any new feedback on this topic. Regards Canta

[Ramphater]

Hi Errol,
Firstly hope your boat is named Sirocco, as was your namesake's.
There's a couple of things to consider (I too have spoken to both manufacturers). The Woolfwinch sits outside the anchor well or somewhere on the bow deck with the electricals inside the well, which is then sealed.
Whereas the stress free sits inside the anchor well -- so you need the room. Secondly the woolfwinch takes the anchor stress directly on a worm gear, meaning you don't have to tie off. The Jetster has a stress free so he can tell you if that's the case with it.
Also from talking to Mr Woolf he seemed to think that he had the superior product (funny about that) -- but really wanted to go from the base model to the $2500 model because my boat was 5.3M, which seemed like a bit of overkill to me -- whereas the base model stress free seems to be quite under his spec but is specified for bigger boats.

[offspray]

Canta, I have a Stress Free, i find it very good, every one wants to be anchor boy on my boat now. I do drive forward when pulling up the anchor,it takes the strain of the motor and also leave engine running when letting down because i think it saves the battery. Only thing i dont like is the noise of the chain going over the sprit 10 metres of it, but thats the price you pay for the ease of it. Cheers Rob
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[ribbit]

rob get some bike tubes and fit over the chain and cable tie them at joins. cuts noise down heaps. Only thing is I am told you need to check chain every 12 months or so as it may rust quicker due to staying wet.
peter
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Remember
Its Gotta Be Red
Peter

[Canta]

The Woolfwinch has a model that can also be mounted in the anchor well, what i want to know is the faster speed of the woolfwinch a big advantage

[BeeFus]

[stroked]

[TheJetster]

Canta said:
Hi new to this forum,read all posts on these winches, contacted both Manufactures and come to the conclusion that the only real diffrence in these winches is that the Woolfwinch claimes to drop & retrieve twice as fast as the Stress Free. Is this a good point or bad, and would appricate any new feedback on this topic. Regards Canta

The Stress Free is plenty fast enough. Anything faster would be scary! The drop only takes seconds and the retrieve is so quick that you sometimes have to motor forward and then slow it down once the anchor gets close. Boy, it sure does roar up fast enough for me.

Ramphater said:
Whereas the stress free sits inside the anchor well -- so you need the room. Secondly the woolfwinch takes the anchor stress directly on a worm gear, meaning you don't have to tie off. The Jetster has a stress free so he can tell you if that's the case with it.

The Stress Free does the same and is designed to take the stress, as it is for most, if not all anchor windlasses. Otherwise you would still have to go forward to tie off.

Offspray said (and stroked agreed):
Canta, I have a Stress Free, i find it very good, every one wants to be anchor boy on my boat now. I do drive forward when pulling up the anchor,it takes the strain of the motor and also leave engine running when letting down because i think it saves the battery. Only thing i dont like is the noise of the chain going over the sprit 10 metres of it, but thats the price you pay for the ease of it.

Yep, I agree, although I am not worried about battery use as I have three on board!

Rabbit said:
rob get some bike tubes and fit over the chain and cable tie them at joins. cuts noise down heaps. Only thing is I am told you need to check chain every 12 months or so as it may rust quicker due to staying wet.

I tried that but the tubing catches on the front roller too often both ways, but especially on the retrieve. It was still noisy and kept fouling so now the tubes are under the garage bench! It’s only noisy for a few seconds.

Canta said:
The Woolfwinch has a model that can also be mounted in the anchor well, what i want to know is the faster speed of the woolfwinch a big advantage

At the time I purchased I didn’t know that there was a Wolfwinch that could be fully mounted under deck. Still they are much more expensive and Dean Forster gave me a demo and a great deal at the boat show, hence Stress Free for me. I also had buckets of space in the anchor well.

Beefus said:
But a disadvantage if your dropping too quick you may not get your anchor set in before its fouled by all the chain dumped on it.
Of course you will soon get the hang of that and reverse as you lay down the chain.
Does anyone have price comparisons for them both and specs?

You will have to call them both as web sites don’t give prices. In my case I got the Stress Free, the Sarca, a S/S swivel and the extra roller for a tad under $2000 at the boat show. The whole package with a Wolfwinch would have been $500 dearer.
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The Jetster at Moolap

[DalyMacca]